College aims to help students 'decolonize Thanksgiving,' get rid of 'harmful stereotypes and racism'

The Social Equity and Title IX office of Indiana University of Pennsylvania sponsored a "Decolonize Thanksgiving Information Table" Thursday to drive home the notion that "stories told about the first Thanksgiving often perpetuate harmful stereotypes and racism."

The idea behind the display was to get students to "decolonize your Thanksgiving to go beyond the harmful 'pilgrims and Indians' narrative and focus on common values: generosity, gratitude, community, and good food."

"There will be copies of 'The suppressed speech of Wamsutta James,'" Abigail Adams, chairperson for IUP's Native American Awareness Council, told Campus Reform, adding that "we have a poster that addresses the 'myth of thanksgiving' with quotes from Native scholars and activists."

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Adams also stated that Carrie House, a two-spirit Navajo scholar who had hosted a lecture on campus in 2017 about Native "Two-Spirits" and is labeled as a "presenter of social justice, LGBTQ2, and cultural and environmental issues," will also be at the table to "offer the Native perspective of Thanksgiving."

In addition, the NAAC, Social Equity and Title IX office will hold a concurrent event throughout the week titled, the "Decolonial Cuisine" celebration that is described as a "culinary movement honoring the heritage of Indigenous America through their foodways and dietary choices."

Not the first time

The idea of "decolonizing" and push to "decolonize" isn't a new one, and it's popular on college campuses.

In 2017, for example, left-wing activists pushed the University of Cambridge to "decolonize" its curriculum by pushing out white authors in a favor of minority writers.

Leftist students at Yale University launched a 2016 petition calling for the school's English department to "decolonize" by getting rid of white male authors as such course content "actively harms all students" and is "especially hostile to students of color."

And as we've come to know, Thanksgiving traditions have long become a target of the left.